Sausage Breakfast Casserole

You can assemble this Sausage Breakfast Casserole recipe the night before you plan to serve it, and simply bake it in the morning for a hearty and delicious meal! This is a great recipe for pleasing a crowd, or for a low stress morning.

Make-ahead meals are the best.

Not everything can be made ahead of time, but thank goodness there are some meals that are even better because they’re made in advance. This Sausage Breakfast Casserole is one of those meals!

Here you assemble everything before you go to sleep, then all you have to do when you wake up the next morning is turn the oven on and bake.

What you end up with is a big dish of eggy custard soaked bread dotted with sausage, cheese, spinach, and tomatoes, that you can scoop onto everyone’s plates. And if you happen to have leftovers, this dish reheats beautifully!

This recipe is similar to a Bread Pudding in many ways, or even a french toast casserole, but takes on a savory profile. Same method, more or less.

It’s a great staple and wonderful recipe for busy mornings, or even a special occasion like Christmas morning. There’s also a lot of flexibility in the ingredients!

Step by Step Overview:

The first thing you want to do is cut up a good quality loaf of bread into small pieces.

Here I used my homemade Sandwich Bread, but you could also purchase a sourdough type loaf of sandwich bread.

Try not to use breads that are really crusty.

With this dish, you want the bread to be a day or two old (in other words, on the dry side) so the bread doesn’t get soggy.

If you’re using fresh bread, you can dry it out a bit by toasting it in the oven (350 for 10 minutes or so, until the cubes are lightly golden).

Place the cubed bread in a casserole dish along with cooked sausage, cooked spinach, diced tomatoes, and cheese.

I simply cook the crumbled sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, until cooked through. Cooking time is usually about 5-7 minutes.

Then pour a custard mixture all over the top of the bread sausage mixture. The custard is made with 8 large eggs, heavy whipping cream, milk, salt, and black pepper.

Make sure to whisk this well in a large bowl first so that the eggs are really broken up.

You will notice that the egg mixture doesn’t soak immediately into the bread, but by the time you wake up in the morning, the liquid will be absorbed.

Cover the baking dish tightly with plastic wrap or aluminum foil before placing the unbaked casserole in the fridge for the night.

Then in the morning, simply bake in a 350 F oven for 1 hour, until the custard has set and the top of the entire casserole is golden brown.

Crepes are another favorite breakfast, and the batter can be made the night before. Overnight Cinnamon Rolls are also one of my favorite makeahead breakfast recipes.

I also love Buttermilk Pancakes, or this Potato Frittata or Hash Browns for something savory. Breakfast potatoes of some sort pair really nicely here, you can even try Roasted Sweet Potatoes. Enjoy!

If you have any leftover sausage you can try Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli too!

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Make-ahead Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Servings: 8

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 1 hour hr

Total Time: 9 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Assemble this breakfast casserole the night before you plan to serve it, and simply bake it in the morning for a hearty and delicious meal!

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Ingredients

• butter for greasing
• 1 lb fresh sweet Italian sausage cooked and crumbled
• 1 standard loaf day-old white bread (6 cups cubed)
• 1.5 cups grated cheddar cheese
• 9 oz bag fresh spinach cooked and drained of excess moisture
• 2 tomatoes diced
• 8 large eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• salt and pepper

Instructions 

• Butter an 8×12 casserole dish, and set it aside.
• In a large bowl, combine the cooked sausage, cubed bread, cheddar, spinach, and tomatoes, and toss together well until evenly distributed. Pour this mixture into the buttered casserole dish.
• In another bowl, whisk to combine the eggs, until lightly blended. Add the heavy cream and milk, and add a big pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk until smooth, then pour it all over the bread cube mixture in the casserole dish. (You will notice that the liquid does not completely cover all of the bread, and that’s fine. By the time you wake up in the morning, the liquid should be absorbed.) 
• Cover the casserole dish with plastic wrap or foil and store in the fridge overnight, or for up to 18 hours.
• When you wake up in the morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake the casserole for 1 hour until the custard has set and the top is golden brown. Serve and enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 397kcal, Carbohydrates: 5g, Protein: 16g, Fat: 34g, Saturated Fat: 15g, Cholesterol: 250mg, Sodium: 544mg, Potassium: 451mg, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 3715IU, Vitamin C: 10.3mg, Calcium: 125mg, Iron: 2.4mg

Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Author: Fifteen Spatulas

Post updated in November 2018. Originally published September 2013.